Christopher said this week that the couple plan to open in time for Troy Night Out, the monthly arts event, on Oct. 25. The 700-square-foot store is in the former Clark House, which dates from 1876. An outdoor patio connects The Grocery with the wine bar.

"We've been working day and night for the past two months," he said Tuesday. "There was so much involved in getting the building up to an acceptable structural level."

The compact store features a walk-in cooler, display shelves, and white subway tile on its exterior.

Christopher still has the vacant space next to The Grocery that once was The Tavern, a popular gathering spot in the 1960s and 1970s. He and LaVine are researching south Asian food, and might try to open a cafe featuring noodle dishes in the space.

They're also sealing up the upper floors, repairing and restoring windows.

The Oct. 25 opening will give those attending Troy Night Out a first look at The Grocery while letting Christopher make sure everything is working as planned.

Sometime around Thanksgiving, the couple plan to enclose the patio under a glass roof that will permit year-round use of the space. Roll-A-Cover, a Bethany, Conn.-based supplier of trackless retractable enclosures, will supply the roof, a project that Christopher says will cost about $55,000.

Roll-A-Cover, by the way, was founded by Michael Morris, whose brother Philip heads Proctors in Schenectady.

David Biggs of Troy-based Ryan-Biggs Associates has been guiding the couple and is doing the necessary engineering work for the new enclosure, Christopher said. "He guided us through the stabilization of the Broadway building," Christopher added.

Christopher said no decision has been made on what to do with the upper floors. To convert them to apartments would require a second exit; only one currently exists.

The couple has saved money by doing much of the work themselves.

"We've mixed by hand at least 500 to 600, maybe as many as a thousand, bags of concrete," Christopher said Wednesday afternoon. They even fashioned supports out of concrete and rebar that now help support the building's roof.

He described their approach as "very primitive but effective, and labor-intensive."